U-Haul: Crooked renters refill gas tank with water

[Blue_Tires]

Source: KATU-TV (Oregon)

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Crooks have come up with a new scam to get out of paying for gas, and it's costing truck rental companies thousands of dollars. Crooks reportedly rent U-Haul trucks then, when the time comes to return the truck, top off the tank with water instead of gas, wrecking the engine. U-Haul dealers say the scam has become more prevalent as gas prices continue to rise.

"We had five or six (instances of) water in fuel (tank) last week," said Kim Merow.

Merow is a U-Haul veteran who has been on the job for 14 years. She says she witnessed gas scams plunge to a new low in the past two months as gas prices traveled further into record territory.

"It seemed a little bit odd in the very beginning when this started happening, but the more and more it happens, we shake our shoulders," she said.

Some scammers get away with it because the trucks are often handed over to the next customer very quickly. But water in the gas tank eventually brings the trucks to a sputtering stop.


Read more: http://www.katu.com/news/local/20902539.html

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sign of the times?

[fasttense]

1. It doesn't sound like much of a scam to me.

It sounds more like desperate people turning to desperate measures.

[razorman]

3. They are still thieves and vandals.

[KansDem]

6. They learned from the best.

Face it--we're "governed" by thieves and vandals. Awfully hard to take the high road when our "leaders" are pulling this shit every day.

[Owl]

7. They sure are. Jail them and make them pay huge fines.

[The Stranger]

50. Nah -- first jail the war criminal murderers in charge -- first things first.

[high density]

13. If you can't afford something, don't buy it

That includes rental trucks and the fuel to fill them with.

[NJCher]

18. they prob'ly need it

to move their stuff from the apartment they were evicted from or the home on which they were foreclosed to the storage place--where, given this economy, it will probably be sold as a lot to some speculator in about four months.

Not condoning it--just saying what I've seen when I talk to the storage unit people around here.



Cher

[davekriss]

26. That;'s exactly what I told Bush before he launched the Iraq war

But he proved to be a liar, thief, and vandal anyway.

[notadmblnd]

2. must be pretty interesting watching them do the shimmy

I hope it's a modest shimmy and not a shimmy like pole dancers do, because that might offend a lot of their customers.

[Robb]

27. I'm glad I wasn't the only one

wondering about the shoulder shaking. Is that a common phrase somewhere? :D

[Hannah Bell]

49. i noticed it too. i think they meant "shrug".

[CrispyQ]

4. If you have the money to rent a truck, what's a few more bucks to fill it up?

Why be a shit? It's like people who go out to eat but leave a crappy tip. It's part of the cost of the whole experience. If you can't afford all of it, don't do it. The people who own the rental companies are trying to make a living too. Most of them are franchise owners & aren't making a killing.

Last night there was a CNN clip about gas station owners closing up because they can't afford to sell gas anymore. Between the extra fees the oil companies & credit card companies charge them, it's barely profitable. One owner said that it cost her $4000 to fill one underground tank & she makes $50 profit on it.

The greed of the big companies is going to drive many small companies out of business.

[Blue_Tires]

9. some people like to feel they are "getting over"

that they are oh-so-smart hustling the system for a few bucks...

[CrispyQ]

14. You know, I think you're right.

It's such a foreign mindset to me that I never considered that as a motive.

I recall a couple we used to socialize with, but finally stopped. When we went to dinner with them, the man spent the entire evening criticizing the waiter so at the end he could justify leaving no tip. Most of the time the waiter's performance was perfectly acceptable, sometimes even stellar. He would watch while we left the tip & comment, "If you think he deserved one, go ahead."

Unfuckingbelievable. And these people were far from poor.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

24. local guy down the street is going out of business too...

can't afford the minimum fuel delivery the big co's are demanding. He's been in business for 40 years or more, a neighborhood staple.. until now. :(

[Spouting Horn]

5. Uh, don't you have to

present a valid drivers license and credit card when you rent one of these things?

Seems it would be easy to identify the culprit, and where he lives.

[grahamhgreen]

10. Looks like the companies don't realize it until they've rented it to the next customer...

[Politicalboi]

8. Don't you need a credit card

To rent those trucks? If you top it off with water they should charge you for the damage you do by putting water in the tank. It might be worth it for the truck companies to give a discount either on the truck or the gas you put in.

[pitohui]

23. these bums aren't going to pay their last credit card bill either

think about the logic of what you're saying

they can charge away all they want, there's no getting blood out of a turnip

[Spouting Horn]

31. Yeah, but they

could charge the renter with criminal charges...seems risky for just 50, 100 bucks.

[pitohui]

42. they could but the DA wouldn't press criminal charges

you don't decide a crime was committed so you press charges

the DA (district attorney) decides and he's a busy man, he's got shit to do

criminals know what honest people DON'T know, that criminal charges are not filed in cases like this, they chew you out and say "take it to civil court" as i know from personal experience having been a victim more than once of economic crime

you are naive, which is a GOOD thing, it shows you are an honest person

[iverglas]

11. old trick, new reasons

When I was in Las Vegas 25 years ago, I spent my 3 days driving around the surrounding area while my companion gambled.

I didn't get any credit for gas left in the tank when I returned the car. Where I'm from, you get the car with a full tank and you return it with a full tank, or pay their price for filling it, which may not be smart, so you fill it yourself. I was perpexed at this empty-tank, no credit policy.

I was told their policy of not giving credit for gas in the tank was so that people would not fill it with water, after losing their life's savings in the slots.

Not wanting to donate free gas to the rental company, I rationed the gas I put into the car. As a result, I came this close to running out of gas in the dark in the middle of Death Valley ...

[damntexdem]

20. And in the middle of Death Valley ...

you could have used that water you didn't put into the gas tank.

[iverglas]

21. too true!

Fortunately, I hit that little tiny settlement in the middle, probably about 6 blocks before running out of gas, and 15 minutes before the pump closed. ;)

With luck like that, I really should have gambled ...

[pitohui]

22. hey, that explains something i've been wondering about

i noticed that the option where you can bring the rental car back empty, is now cheaper than the option of you fill it up before you return it

for instance, they gave us a fuel option of $4.04 a gallon, if we'd not taken the option and brought it back full of gas from a gas station it would have been 4.24 or similar

used to be, the fuel option would be something ridiculous like $6 a gallon because they just didn't want you to bring the car back empty

now they DO want the car brought back empty

and now i have learned why! they don't want some dirtbag just filling it with water

[Trillo]

12. Oh baloney.

Water in the fuel doesn't 'wreak the engine'. The fuel system does need to be cleaned out of all the water, a messy, precise, and likely somewhat expensive job. But wreak the engine? No.

[1monster]

15. A messy, time consuming expensive job. My husband unknowingly had a

leak in his fuel cap. Lots of water got into the gas tank over time. He tried every known method of drying out the gas tank with no success.

In the end, the tank had to be dropped, emptied, and then put back on.

He still had to use drying agents in his gas tank for several gas tanks full after that.

[Trillo]

16. That sounds about right.

"back in the old days" of carburetors, before fuel injectors, it was common to find water in the float chamber of the carburetors on a rebuild. Over time, water builds up in the gas tank simply from condensation (this build up of condensation water can be minimized by keeping the tank full, instead of empty). Anyway, with older cars with lots of miles, dropping the gas tank, cleaning and drying often resulted in a better running vehicle.

It's not really such a big job. Yes, more expensive than a simple tune up, and a job much easier to perform when the gas tank is near empty.

When the tank is out of the vehicle it should be dried completely, typically by placing an air hose in the tank and opening the valve so there's just a very small amount of air flow through the hose (like a pinhole air leak). This drying method might take a day or two. I don't know if that "old fashioned" method of drying the tank is legal these days, but it works.

[JVS]

19. I think by wrecked they simply mean to convey that it requires repair more costly than routine...

maintenance.

[1monster]

35. If the vehical is a Chevy G20 Van with a thirty-five gallon tank, it is a BIG job.

(It's an old car. Mine is a Chevy Aveo--nine gallon tank. :D)

[Trillo]

40. You have to remember that people that work in maintenence bays

have access to all kinds of tools and lifting equipment that most people don't even know about. What an apartment resident with a small toolbox of tools thinks is a big job is quite a bit different than what a professional working in a reasonably well-equipped maintenance bay would think.

All tanks are much lighter weight when empty than full.

I simply take exception to the language used, "wreaks the engine", it's imprecise and gives the wrong impression regarding the actual damage to the vehicles (very little to none, just a cleaning and flushing job). I suppose it gives the creative biz owner and accountant an opportunity to pad recorded repair costs versus actual repair costs. Many mechanics working in professional bays get minimum wage or only slightly higher (my actual experience), under the supervision of a highly paid "journeyman" mechanic.

Yes, the source of the water added to the tank, whether it's a customer, or the business itself (like maybe a disgruntled employee), is certainly malicious.

[JVS]

17. How fucking moronic can you be? Gee, How will we catch these fiends? TO THE RENTAL RECORDS!

[uncle ray]

38. it could be halfway smart thieves pulling this off.

here's how i'd do it if i were so inclined.

i'd rent the truck, load my stuff up in it, drain the good gas and put water in the tank. hop in the truck and proceed down the road until the truck quits running. then call Uhaul and raise hell about the truck quitting so they come and replace the truck with another, make sure to raise a huge fuss so they move your stuff from truck to truck and give you a huge discount on the rental for the inconvenience on top of the tank of gas you took. and the best part, it gets blamed on the poor schmuck who rented the truck before you.

[DS1]

25. Damn. As if moving wasn't already hell, your truck breaks down

because the fucker before you sabotaged it. And you've got to get a new truck, if you can get one at all, and reload your stuff, and if you're late moving out the landlord and next person moving already hates you.

[regnaD kciN]

28. Monumentally stupid...

All they have to do, once a van breaks down, is look up the last renter, then call the cops. :crazy:

[Catherine Vincent]

29. And the cost to repair these trucks will go to the customer by way of raising rates. nt

[JVS]

30. Maybe not. They might just charge it to the card of the renter that fucked it up

Think of it like trashing a hotel room

[triguy46]

32. This has all the smell of an urban legend doncha think?

[Solon]

33. No, for one reason, its actually reported officially by U-Haul themselves...

for another, its not as if its unlikely this has happened in the past, nor is there any reason to doubt that this type of practice is increasing now.

[triguy46]

45. So, how does one fill a gas tank with water and drive to the uhaul...

store and return the truck? Was this reported by Uhaul corporate officials or a local independent franchiser?

[ronnie624]

34. It reeks of bullshit. I don't believe a word of it.

It seems contrived to fill space on a slow news day.

If a gas tank was "topped of" with water, the water would go straight to the bottom of the tank, and be promptly pumped into the engine. It couldn't possibly run long enough to drive to a U-Haul rental center.

This 'article' is crap.

[Bassic]

36. I know i should feel this is wrong,

but the crap that I've rented from U-Haul has given so much trouble that it's hard for me to do. Still, I know this is wrong.

[AP]

37. This is wrong, but it's hard to have sympathy for U-Haul. I remember there used to be

a consumer rating website I looked at a lot -- UHaul was always one of the worst-rated company.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. Better to let renters bring back the truck empty of gas than risk ruined engines.

[bemildred]

41. No "eventually" about it.. Water sinks to the bottom and stops your engine real soon.

I speak from experience. I got a load of water from a Chevron station in the 70s, I didn't make more than half a mile.

[pitohui]

43. my experience is from hurricane katrina and modern engines make several hundred miles

not to crap on your experience but it's out dated

as far as those who say "look at the rental records" i figure the odds are good the wrong person will be blamed based on how far i got with water in my engine after katrina (over 600 miles, admittedly knockier and knockier)

[bemildred]

44. Well, I'm not going to re-do the experiment, so I'll take your word for it.

That makes this sort of thing a much more workable "expedient" then.

[pitohui]

46. yeah the smart gas station doesn't sell you pure water they just water down the gas

i even know where it happened but there was nothing to be done since there was no gas to be bought and i had to get where i was going :-(

[formercia]

47. Ethanol aggravates the problem

Alcohol aids in dispersing water in gasoline. Crooked dealers and distributors can cut gas with water and make a lot of money. As long as they don't get too greedy, most people won't notice. I bought gas at one station that had so much water in it, my car looked like a Stanley Steamer going down the road.

Water in gas is especially noticeable on humid days when the water vapor coming out of the exhaust can't evaporate.

[MilesColtrane]

48. Moran criminals.

They'll just end up getting their credit cards charged with a $75,000 truck.